The conclusion of our three part series looking to expose each next gen browser's greatest strengths and weaknesses

In our exploration of next generation browsers we first
examined the user interface,
installation details, time to install, and application launch
times. We next turned our attention to CPU
and memory usages, as well as
comparing and contrasting the security of the various browser
offerings. Topics we haven't looked at yet include rendering
comparisons, synthetic benchmarks, plug-ins, and standards support, as
well as our conclusions. We planned just one more piece, but
that's a lot of ground to cover, so we've broken it up into two more
pieces.

In this first piece, we'll look at synthetic benchmarks and plug-in
support. In the next (and final) segment, we'll examine
rendering performance, standards support (including performance in the
Acid3 benchmark), and our conclusions on the state of the browser war
and who we believe the current winner(s) is/are.

6. Synthetic
Benchmarks:

The first synthetic benchmark we ran was Celtic
Kane's Javascript test.
The homepage for the test showed Safari 4 to be the leading web
browser. Our own testing indicated that it has been passed by
Google's Chrome. Safari came in second, Opera in third,
Firefox in fourth, and Internet Explorer came in at a distant fifth.

The next synthetic benchmark run was the popular Sunspider
Javascript test. This
test again showed Chrome 4 beating Safari 4. This time,
though, Firefox was a runner up. Opera performed unexpectedly
poorly in this test, though Opera 10 managed a bit better
performance. And Internet Explorer 8 performed the worst of
all, taking nearly eight times as long as Chrome 4 to complete this
test. Combined with Celtic Kane, these tests indicate the Safari's Squirrelfish engine, Chrome's V8 to be the clear JS leaders and the JS
performance of Trident, IE 8's engine, to be dismal.

Our next synthetic benchmark was Peacekeeper, a Futuremark test suite
which we recently
profiled. Our testing
with the suite indicated Chrome to be in the lead, followed closely by
Safari and then Firefox. Opera 10 managed middling
results. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer was the slowest,
managing a mere sixth of the score of Chrome. The suite looks
at a number of aspects, including JS performance, CSS performance,
rendering, and more, so it is a good general indicator of speed.

The last synthetic benchmark we used was How-To-Create UK's CSS
test. The test loads approximately 2,500 DIVs and times how
fast the load takes. Unfortunately, WebKit browsers (Safari
and Chrome) aren't supported due to how they measure time, so we could
only get results for Firefox, IE 8, and Opera. For these
browsers, Opera 10 barely led Firefox 3.6a1, while Internet
Explorer 8 yet again lagged in performance.

Conclusions to be drawn from the synthtetic tests -- Chrome is the
fastest browser with Safari close behind. Opera and Firefox
are just slightly behind. And Internet Explorer 8 is the
slowest browser. Even on content heavy sites, though, this
performance difference is not as great as these tests might seem to
indicate. In fact, it may only account for a couple of extra
seconds of load time. Still, it could become an annoyance on
content-heavy pages like Facebook.

7. Plug-ins

A common misconception is that Firefox is the only browser that has
plug-ins, add-ons, extensions, or otherwise named optional
components. Plug-ins/add-ons/extensions are, in fact, a vital
part of modern browsers. There are a diverse variety of
formats include ActiveX, NPAPI, Java, Google Gears, RSS, and
Atom.

Mozilla Firefox does arguably lead in this field, having the most
enthusiastic developer community for plug-ins, and the most useful
plug-ins. Firefox 3.6a1 does not provide is support for
classic Java plugins and ActiveX plug-ins.

Looking at the other browsers, Opera (which does not support Gears,
ActiveX), Chrome (also no ActiveX), and Safari (no ActiveX, Gears
partial only) all offer decent plug-in support, but their developer
communities are still in a fledgling state. Internet Explorer
8, on the other hand, offers a lot of plug-ins -- in fact, plug-ins are
essential to improving the browser's standards support.
Unfortunately IE 8 does not support the NPAPI extension language
commonly used for Mozilla. IE 8 plug-ins are generally more
for utility rather than aesthetics.

Plug-ins
are most accessible to Firefox users, as Firefox's plug-in system is
friendly enough for even beginning users. Nonetheless, if
other factors make you pick another browser, it's a good idea to check
out what kind of plug-ins are available for it, as there will surely be
some useful ones.

Note:
All benchmarks were performed in 32-bit Vista on a Sony VAIO laptop
with 3 GB of RAM, a T8100 Intel Processor (2.1 GHz), and a NVIDIA 8400
GT mobile graphics chip. The number of processes was kept consistent
and at a minimum to reflect stock performance.

"The Space Elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing" -- Sir Arthur C. Clarke